Doing Penance

 

Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return, a conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, a turning away from evil, with repugnance toward the evil actions we have committed. At the same time it entails the desire and resolution to change one's life, with hope in God's mercy and trust in the help of his grace. This conversion of heart is accompanied by a salutary pain and sadness which the Fathers called animi cruciatus (affliction of spirit) and compunctio cordis (repentance of heart). Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1431

Why do penance? What benefit is there for a Christian to choose some act of mortification, of denying oneself of some good, of taking up some difficult or unpleasant work -- all this that we call penance? 

The Christian life is one of love. It starts in receiving God's love by faith, by knowing and believing in the love God has for us. Supernaturally, we are engrafted into Christ's own life of love in baptism, in confirmation, in receiving the Eucharist, in receiving cleansing in confession -- the whole sacramental life. 

Love, by its nature, is reciprocal. Love given to us draws love back out of ourselves, we return it, opening up an ongoing dialogue. God's love is infinite, and our souls are created for living in this infiinte love, but we ourselves are finite. Though we are given love, we leak. Though we are warmed by its perfection, we cool off. 

Love is an act of self-giving. When we love, we give ourselves to the one we love. God gives Himself to us and makes us able to give back to Him, giving us both the capacity and the love itself. 

Penance is like a stretch that helps us give more. It maintains the capacity God gave us and builds on it. It develops our human strength to love. With strength, we develop our capacity for more beautiful giving, more beautiful loving. And it isn't only about some aesthetic. It actually enables us to participate with God in extending His own love to other human beings, perhaps welcoming them in for the first time to this dialogue of love with God, perhaps helping them to become stronger. Perhaps keeping them literally warm and fed. Perhaps giving them courage. Could be any of the spiritual or corporal works of mercy.

If we don't physically exercise, eventually we start to lose our physical capacities. When we start to exercise, we extend them. The same might be said of penance. We can also observe that some ways of life have both physical and interior "penances" built in: manual laborers develop muscles, and those facing adversities might learn to choose great sacrifices. In both situations, we know that serious injury is also possible, so care and counsel are needed. Even the strongest human beings are fragile.

We must never attempt penance in order to deny we have a fragile nature, or because we are ashamed of ourselves. We must always start at square one, which is receiving God's love for and in our brokenness. It is best to start, then, with being still before God and allowing Him to love us. 

Just go and sit in front of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and allow Him to love you. Ask Him to make this love real to you from His Word. 

And let the exchange of love begin.